Month: January 2010

New York, January 06: China’s UN Ambassador Zhang Yesui called Tuesday for more negotiations and diplomacy to resolve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme.

Zhang, speaking as president of the UN Security Council in January, said diplomatic efforts are underway to work out a settlement.

“This is not the right time for sanctions,” Zhang said in reply to reporters’ questions whether the 15-nation council under his presidency would consider additional sanctions on Iran for rejecting repeated UN demands to end its uranium enrichment programmes.

Washington, January 06: The US has halted the transfer of inmates from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility back to Yemen, where an Al Qaeda branch allegedly plotted the Dec 25 attack on a Detroit-bound airliner, President Barack Obama said Tuesday.

About half of the nearly 200 remaining prisoners at Guantanamo are Yemeni citizens, making their fate a key component of the administration’s pledge to close the controversial facility in Cuba.

Los Angeles, January 06: Three biologists working for the California Department of Fish and Game died when their helicopter crashed in remote Sierra foothills south of Yosemite National Park, an agency official said.
The pilot is missing.

The cause of the crash was not known, but reports said that the Bell 206 may have struck a power line.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the three scientists were attempting to estimate the size and health of the local deer population to develop a strategy for herd management.

–IANS–

Washington, January 06: U.S. President Barack Obama had convened a Security Room meeting of his top intelligence and security aides to review the security breach and intelligence failure in the December 25 plot

Noting that there was sufficient information to uncover the December 25 plot, US President Barack Obama has said that the intelligence community failed to connect the dots and added that this would not be tolerated.

“Elements of our intelligence community knew that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had travelled to Yemen and joined up with extremists there.

Fresno, January 06: Seemingly suspicious pieces of luggage delayed flights at two airports Tuesday, prompting evacuations in Minneapolis and closing a California airport where authorities discovered soft drink bottles filled with what later appeared to be honey.

A passenger’s suitcase tested positive for TNT at Bakersfield’s Meadows Field during a routine swabbing of the bag’s exterior, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said. When Transportation Security Administration officials opened the bag, they found bottles filled with an amber liquid, he said.

Washington, January 05: Attacks by al Qaeda-linked rebels led to a suspension of food distribution in large swathes of Somalia that left one million people without aid, the UN food agency said today.

“Rising threats and attacks on humanitarian operations, as well as the imposition of a string of unacceptable demands from armed groups, have made it virtually impossible for the World Food Program (WFP) to continue reaching up to one million people in need in southern Somalia,” it said in a statement.

Japan, January 05: Japanese whaling crews are believed to be using spy flights from Australian airports to monitor protesters in the Antarctic waters.

The spy flights are taking off from Australian airports to keep watch on the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s vessel, the Steve Irwin.

Flights from Western Australia have located the Steve Irwin but others from Hobart failed to find the ship, Fairfax newspapers reported today.

The federal opposition and Greens leader Bob Brown have demanded the government ban the use of Australian airports for the spy flights.

Canada, January 05: A Series of powerful aftershocks rattled the Solomon Islands late last night, a day after a 7.2-magnitude quake and tsunami left around 1,000 people homeless on the remote Pacific islands.

The aftershocks, ranging from magnitude 5.3 to 6.9 struck just minutes apart from around 2315 (AEDT) and came as officials visited isolated villages to check on damage after Monday’s earthquake.

The latest aftershocks struck very close to Monday’s quake, according to seismologists at the US Geological Survey.

London, January 05: More than 25 million German bank cards have been hit by a software bug that cropped up on New Year’s Day, the country’s savings bank association and private banks said.

The problem has hit cardholders trying to use cash machines or make payments throughout the country and abroad.

The problem stems from software unable to recognise the year 2010, and might take a week to resolve, the DSGV association said in a statement.

Japan, January 05: Japan’s prime minister accepted his finance minister’s resignation offer because of poor health, despite earlier asking him to stay at the helm of the world’s number two economy, Kyodo News said today.

During talks earlier in the day, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama had said he wanted Hirohisa Fujii to stay in the cabinet but “the government eventually decided to accept Fujii’s resignation as he was adamant”, Kyodo said, citing a ruling party MP.

Tripoli, January 05: The opening up of Libya’s stock exchange to foreign investors marks the beginning of an era which will bring rapid developments in the country’s capital markets, according to the Chairman of Economic Group Libya (MAL), Khalil ElKwafi.

Since Decree no. 14 came into force in June, allowing non-resident investors to buy shares in the Libyan Stock Exchange (LSE), four sectors have been listed and ElKwafi voiced his confidence that heightened activity was on the horizon.